Henry Fielding's narrative Tom Jones brings to life a picaresque journey of a young boy in the English countryside. While traveling to London, Tom Jones encounters a mysterious old man known as the Man of the Hill. The Old Man relates to Tom and his friend Partridge his life story in an interpolated tale, which some contend strays from the central plot. Many readers fail to grasp the importance of the story in which the Old Man recites. The Old Man tells of how he left the study of books to travel through Europe and learn through his experiences. Unfortunately, his experiences have only taught him to detest mankind. Further, the Old Man now only studies the divine. While his early years were spent seeking knowledge from experience, the man now has burrowed himself in a cabin with only books to teach him.
             An intriguing way to view the Man of the Hill scene is to pull it through the ideas of philosopher, John Locke, and contemplate how they compare. Locke's ideas on learning were profoundly set forward in his work, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Locke pushed forward his "blank slate" theory, which holds that man is created with no innate ideas, instead, all ideas and knowledge are learned through experience (Locke 89). While Fielding's Old Man follows Locke's theory to gain knowledge while a young student, his present life finds him living in rejection to any notion of a "blank slate". To most accurately compare the two works, one must first grasp the importance and meaning of the Man of the Hill. When this importance is understood, only then is the reader able to compare the Old Man to John Locke's beliefs, which uncovers an Old Man living in violation of Locke's experience theory. The concept of comparing the Man of the Hill to Locke's beliefs is new; therefore, few solid sources are available on this subject. While critics such as Ian Watt and Walter ...